Dateline: Stevens Point WI (my brother's house), a mere 12 hours from kickoff at Lambeau, 2 October 2004
Spent day with son Kevin at Wisconsin Dells, sort of a cheap Disneyland for Cheeseheads. Felt very good to be "with my own ones" again. Heard more pleases and thank-yous in last 24 than in last year in RI.
Kev and I did waterpark, go-cart racing, rollercoaster, bungee jumping (2X) and fabulous ride in WWII-era "Ducks" in my beloved Wisconsin River. I must confess I would move back here tomorrow if I could; I just feel that much at home here.
Sent proposal for Son of PNM to Putnam on Friday before I flew out here, and confess that having those chips on the table makes for a nervous weekend.
Then there's Kurt Warner, who's always spooked me and whom I've never really liked (admired, but never liked whatsoever).
Then I get a fascinating email like this one:
To: Dr. Barnett
As I'm reading PNM and looking at the Chapter 1 Graphics from your web site, I'm also reading The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, the thought came, that the end of classical physics is comparable to your end of Globalization One, the rise of the era relativity science is comparable to end of WWII, the competing science era of quantum mechanics and relativity is comparable to the Globalization II period, the age of two competing powers, and now the era of super string theory is now emerging as Globalization III develops.
Coincidence? If not, is there a correlation ?
If so, is there a common driver to both?
One of you many readers
[name withheld because I'm posting this impulsively]
So here is how I answered:
Intrigued and always attracted to such arguments. I would need more
dialogue with you and perhaps you with others. So please offer more
analysis.
My approach to putting ideas out is what Art Cebrowski calls data-free
research: I sense something and then declare it, and then the smart people
out there send the data to me.
This may be another good case of that happening, so I encourage you to
continue. Educate me please.
Tom Barnett
I would welcome other emails on this subject as well. A great insight like that one may be is almost enough for me to put the comments function back into the blog--almost, but not enough.
Why?
You bump into the Prison Planet and Ludwig-van-whatshisname web freaks now and then and you don't want to give them an opening on your site to make it their own with their incessant garbage. Just deleting their emails alone takes me too much time.
And yet, I can see the need for some place where such conversations should be held, so I will talk to my emerging network of advisers on this issue.
Meanwhile, chew on this guy's email. If I wasn't so stupid on science, I wouldn't ask.
GO PACK!
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